All In with the Jesus Movement

Brad Sullivan

St. Mark’s, Bay City

August 14, 2016 - Proper 15

Luke 12:49-56

All In with the Jesus Movement

Have you ever heard Jesus referred to as the prince of peace?  I’m often surprised to find that in the Gospels, Jesus is nowhere called, “Prince of Peace.”  We get that term from a passage in Isaiah 9:6 which says, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Passages in both Matthew and Luke allude to this verse from Isaiah, and we believe Jesus was the one referred to in Isaiah 9:6, so we call Jesus the prince of peace.  Jesus said, “blessed are the peacemakers.”  He told his disciples to have their peace be upon any house in which they stayed.  He told people to be at peace with one another, and he constantly told people to go in peace. 

Even at his crucifixion, he asked for forgiveness for his killers; if that’s not peace…and yet Jesus said in Luke 12:51, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”  This seems rather contradictory to what Jesus lived and taught at other times, but I don’t think it actually was contradictory.  Peace is what it seems that Jesus wanted people to have and to live, to be at peace within themselves and with one another.  I just don’t think Jesus was naïve enough to think that everyone actually would live in peace. 

He had a fire to kindle, a way of believing and living that got in the way of the status quo, that got in the way of peoples’ lives, and anytime you go from preaching to meddling, you’re going to cause or expose division.  I don’t know that Jesus wanted division as a goal, but Jesus wasn’t about to stop preaching simply because some or even many weren’t going to like what they heard.  He knew that those who believed in what he said would be rejected by those who did not, and he knew his followers would reject practices that ran counter to what he taught.  Division was inevitable.

Following Jesus meant being all in, it still does, actually, and being all in means changing the practices and habits of one’s life.  Look at addicts in recovery.  Being in recovery means being all in, and that usually means changing social circles if those old social circles are full of whatever the addiction is.  Being in recovery, what we would call repentance, turning around, means changing daily habits, lots of self examination, and having a mentor, someone to give guidance and support.  Being in recovery is practicing a new way of life every day.  Those changes can cause division.

Like being in recovery, being a part of the Jesus movement means being all in.  It means repentance of ways of life which cause harm.  Being part of the Jesus movement may mean changing social circles, or it may mean giving up some of the behaviors a person used to have, things that are harmful.  Being all in means practicing the new way of life in Jesus, keeping the fire burning.  Being all in means following in Jesus with one’s whole heart, repenting authentically and completely, even realizing that we’re going to fall short.  Such all in following of Jesus is going to cause some division.  The Jesus movement doesn’t have time or room for halfhearted love or entitled repentance, thinking that because I believe in Jesus I don’t have to take his teachings and way of life all that seriously.  The Jesus movement requires total commitment.  Even knowing that we’re not going to get it right all the time, fully expecting that we will continue to need to repent, the Jesus movement means being all in, not halfhearted.

I generally don’t use sports analogies to talk about the Gospel, I think mainly because I’m not a particularly athletic person, but we’re talking about practicing new ways of life.  Sports kinda works, plus it’s the Olympics, and I think it’s just about required that we do some olympic-y themed sermon.  So, for me, not an Olympian, playing various sports as a kid, I would go to a weekly practice, play whatever game it was in the yard maybe once a week for about 10 minutes, and then go to the game and hope or even think that I might do ok, or at least better than last time.   I didn’t really like practicing so oddly enough I didn’t really improve much at any of the sports I played. 

In stark contrast to that, I was blown away by seeing Katie Ledecky swim the 800M freestyle a couple of days ago.  Before the race even started, I was blown away that they were swimming fast for over 8 minutes straight, around a half a mile.  On some level, I knew that people did this and are able to do this, heck we’ve got an Ironman swimmer, biker, and runner here in the congregation, but still somehow I just didn’t get that you could swim for 8 minutes like they do in the Olympics.  So, they did, and Katie not only broke her own world record, she finished 11 seconds faster than the silver medalists.  She was halfway across the pool on her last lap before anyone else had made the turn. 

That, my brothers and sisters, requires commitment.  I’m sure she had to repent at some point too, had a Little Debbie snack cake at some point or another, but to swim on her level, she was all in.  Practicing on the level of Olympic athletes requires a whole-life commitment, sometimes even moving to another place and living with the other athletes for a while.  They aren’t athletes for an hour or two a week, and not for a practice, a tournament, and a few minutes in the yard.  It’s a whole lifestyle.  It’s being all in.

The Jesus movement requires practice.  We can’t approach it like I did as a kid, kick a ball around for a few minutes once a week and think you’ll do well in the game.  The fire of the Jesus movement requires Katie Ledecky kind of practice.

A word about that, though.  If you’re like me, seeing the Olympics often inspires me to want to get in better shape, to be like the Olympians.  Generally I’ll go out and walk the dog a little bit more often, or if I’m feeling particularly adventurous, I may even jog a little bit.  My challenge has always been going out and doing too much too fast.  I’ll go out and jog a mile having not jogged in months or longer, and as you’d guess, that’s about the last time I’d jog for a while.  The fire is quickly burnt out because I threw all of the fuel into the flames right away, rather than slowly building and tending the fire.  A short jog every other day, gradually increasing in length and frequency, would be much better. 

So too with being all in with Jesus, we generally can’t change everything in our lives all at once and expect anything to stick.  The fire will burn out, and we’ll end up tired and disillusioned.  The fire of the Jesus movement requires slow and steady practice, continually increasing in duration and frequency, the flames slowly growing and burning brighter as with the Holy Spirit, we continually collect and add fuel to the fire.  We aren’t doing this alone, we partner with God every step of the way.

The fire of the Jesus movement requires prayer and self examination.  As we go along, we keep making changes to our lives as we continually examine our lives in light of Jesus’ Gospel.  We gradually let go of things that keep us from loving and living with our whole hearts.  We let go of things that keep our hearts and minds from God and others.

The fire of the Jesus movement requires others with us to serve as guides and mentors and for use to guide and mentor others.  We don’t go it alone.  Being all in means being all in with others.  We have the whole church, and we also have those few people who truly understand us and who help us in our practice of walking and living the Jesus movement.  We have those few people whom we can be honest to when we know we need to repent, those few people who will hold us accountable for our actions, who can admit with us that we’ve done wrong without judging us as being bad.  These are our coaches, our friends, those who help us tend and grow the flames.

Being all in with Jesus may even cause division.  Some may not like the fact that we love Jesus.  Ok.  Just make sure it is others who are rejecting you.  We may reject practices, but not people.  We may choose to live certain ways or not to live in other ways.  In the Jesus movement, we choose to live in ways that bring about greater faith, hope, and love, and we reject in our own lives those things which get in the way of faith, hope, and love.  What get’s in the way of faith, hope, and love for each of us, may not get in the way for someone else.  The fact that we believe in Jesus doesn’t mean that we require others to believe.  We don’t reject those who don’t believe in Jesus.  We do accept, however, that we may be rejected because of our beliefs and way of life. 

That’s being all in.  Believing in Jesus, following in his ways, tending the flames and practicing our faith and way of life, paying and asking for the Holy Spirit to partner with us, and being with others for mutual coaching and support…that is how the fire of Jesus is kindled in us, burns in us, and spreads to others.   Even if some reject us, because of our faith, hope, and love in Jesus, we choose to be all in.  Amen.